| NASA, DOT programs help launch new drive train initiative expected to slash driving costs, cut emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil |
“Our current 20 mpg national average vehicle fuel efficiency is embarrassing. While 50 miles per gallon in cars like the Toyota Prius is great for today, to address our transportation energy needs in the near future our national average fuel economy should be more than 200 miles per gallon.”
Privately-held AFS Trinity Power Corporation unveiled a flywheel-based technology at a Girvan Institute meeting today that the company expects will make it possible for the average American driver to achieve more than 250 miles per gallon fuel economy in a sedan and 200 miles per gallon in an SUV.
According to AFS Trinity CEO Edward W. Furia, what the company calls the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train is expected to lower driving costs, cut emissions, and reduce American dependence on foreign oil. Related hybrid bus technology is expected to be deployed by AFS Trinity in a DOT demonstration project next year. The passenger car drive train is expected to begin development this year, be demonstrated in a prototype vehicle in two years and be ready for licensing to U.S. and foreign carmakers in three.
AFS Trinity released the first public details of the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train at a meeting of the Girvan Institute, a non-profit corporation that promotes the commercialization of cutting edge technology developed with or for government labs and agencies. AFS Trinity is presently conducting flywheel projects under contracts with NASA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Navy. AFS Trinity's flywheel hybrid drive train initiative has its roots in flywheel technology programs the company has conducted for numerous U.S. Government and State agencies over the last ten years, during which time more than $45 million has been invested in the company's flywheel technology, most of it from private sources.
In his presentation, Furia said the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train differs from present conventional hybrids in two important ways:
Going from 10% to 75%
"First, the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train is an advanced 'plug-in hybrid' which gets most of its power from the electric power grid, not the local gas station.
"All hybrids sold today still generate all of their power directly or indirectly from internal combustion and gasoline. The electric motor and batteries rely on the internal combustion engine for their power and then simply help the engine make better use of each gallon burned. In the end, present hybrids are running on their batteries alone only 10% of the time.
"Vehicles that employ AFS Trinity's Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train will connect at night to house current through a wireless inductive coupler to charge their car's batteries and flywheel. We expect it to run for 40 to 50 miles without burning a single drop of gasoline. Since most Americans drive less than 40 miles most days that means the average person would burn no gasoline on most days. The internal combustion engine only kicks in when one needs to go farther in a single day. If the driver needs to travel further than 40 miles, The Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train will enable a car to go up to 500 miles as a conventional hybrid, while getting 50 MPG, using regenerative braking and producing the same lower level of emissions as conventional hybrids."
2 to 3 times more energy from braking
The second major difference from a standard hybrid is much greater regenerative braking capability. By having an electric motor on board, most hybrids partially recharge their batteries during braking, recapturing some of the energy originally provided to the wheels by the engine that otherwise would be released as heat during braking.
However, present hybrids capture little of this braking energy, primarily because chemical batteries can't recharge fast enough to capture more. Because the AFS Trinity flywheel captures power extremely quickly, the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train will recapture more than 80% of the power from braking.
Do we have enough electricity?
More than half of the electricity generating capacity of the U.S. Power Grid is idle every night because there is no economical way to store electricity. This is more than enough to recharge plug-in hybrids, according to Furia. "In fact, our analysis of U.S. peak and off-peak power generating capacity for the Grid indicates that even if all U.S. vehicles were converted to plug-ins, there is more than enough off-peak capacity to charge plug-in hybrids," Furia said.
According to Atul Deshmane, AFS Trinity Director of Automotive Systems Engineering, these gains will be made possible by a drive train that will be capable of storing more electricity and managing it better by employing AFS Trinity advanced flywheel technology, power electronics, chemical batteries, an electric power train and a small steady-state internal combustion engine.
Deshmane said, "The Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train benefits from dozens of emerging space, automotive, ultracapacitor and other technologies, but advanced flywheel energy storage is what we believe will make better storage and delivery of the energy possible." Deshmane was a member of several automakers' alternative vehicle systems development teams, including the team at Ford Motor Company, where he was involved in systems engineering, power electronics and hydrogen fuel cells before joining AFS Trinity in 2004.
The Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train
The Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train is composed of five primary subsystems:
(1) Energy storage in advanced lithium batteries; (2) power storage in an advanced flywheel; (3) advanced power-conversion and electronics; (4) a high efficiency steady-state engine (5) an electric powertrain. AFS Trinity has in-house proprietary technology in energy storage and power conversion and will work with partners and suppliers to address other subsystems. "Although all of the subsystems are important, the high performance energy storage system is the critical part of a plug-in hybrid drive train," said Furia.
The Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train is essentially a "hybrid-hybrid". When the vehicle runs on electricity alone it will not rely solely on its batteries; advanced high power devices such as the flywheel and ultracapacitors will do all of the "heavy lifting," providing high power over a short duration for acceleration or for quickly capturing regenerative braking energy. In this way the biggest problem of plug-in hybrid design is addressed -- chemical batteries cannot tolerate absorbing or releasing high currents when they are in a deeply discharged state. The flywheel will buffer and protect the batteries, leaving them to do only what they do best: provide low-current longer running time in electric-only mode. "Thus, power from the batteries will be 'sipped' by the vehicle, not 'gulped,'" said Furia.
Geopolitical Implications
"We need to cure our addiction to oil," says Furia, who was first director of the U.S. EPA's Middle Atlantic office. "Our current 20 mpg national average vehicle fuel efficiency is embarrassing. While 50 miles per gallon in cars like the Toyota Prius is great for today, to address our transportation energy needs in the near future our national average fuel economy should be more than 200 miles per gallon."
"With most global oil supplies centered in an unstable Middle East, demand rising with the expansion of China and India, and some experts predicting oil prices of $150 a barrel and $5-plus per gallon gasoline in five years, Furia believes that technologies such as the Extreme Hybrid(TM) are a matter of national security. This technology could dramatically change the geopolitical landscape within a decade," he said.
About AFS Trinity
AFS Trinity is a privately-owned corporation with headquarters in Bellevue, WA, an engineering center in California, and satellite operations elsewhere in the U.S. The company has devoted more than $45 million, 75% of it from private sources, to the development of kinetic energy storage, power management and UPS power backup technologies. AFS Trinity is currently engaged in or has participated in development programs with a number of private and government organizations including DARPA, NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. DOT, California Energy Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Lockheed and Honeywell. One of AFS Trinity's predecessor companies, American Flywheel Systems, Inc (AFS) received the first patent ever given for a flywheel battery in 1992. AFS merged with Trinity Flywheel Power in 2000. For more information, visit www.afstrinity.com.
About the Girvan Institute of Technology
The Girvan Institute of Technology was established in 2002 as a non-profit, public benefit corporation to accelerate the development and application of cutting edge technologies, supporting research and development programs of U.S. Government agencies such as DARPA, the US Air Force, the Department of Energy and NASA, as well as those of a number of research organizations, both academic and corporate, around the world. The Institute leverages private and public sector R&D breakthroughs to promote collaborative development of technology, transmission and dissemination of intellectual assets, and the development of commercial enterprises across the globe. Girvan's affiliates and partners include research labs in the United States and abroad, Fortune 1000 companies, small and medium sized hi-tech enterprises and a number of private equity and venture capital firms. For more information, contact Girvan Institute, Maxine Manafy, 408-200-7421 or visit www.girvan.org.
Additional Background and Links
"How utilities can save America from its oil addiction," Gal Luft, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security Excerpts: "Thus, unlike electric-only cars ... plug-ins offer the same driving range as gasoline powered cars...Unlike the 'hydrogen economy' which requires massive investment in infrastructure change, plug-ins offer better utilization of existing infrastructure...Consumer surveys indicate that drivers like the plug-ins idea because they would offer the best of both worlds: the gas savings and emissions reduction benefits of battery powered electric vehicles, and the range of a 'normal' car...The entrance of the power industry into the transportation fuel market could bring fuel choice to drivers and help set America free from its dependence on oil coming from unstable countries." http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=790 see also www.iags.org
"Plug-In Vehicles-Today's Car for Tomorrow's Technology", Electricity Innovation Institute http://www.epri.com/attachments/285860_1007115Print_081902.pdf
DaimlerBenz Plug-in Hybrid Dodge Sprinter Van http://www.mixedpower.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=137
Interview with Andy Frank, UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid Researcher http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=504
Article about California enthusiasts seeking to convert their Prius Hybrids into Plug-in Hybrids http://www.calcars.org/
"Hybrid Cars Now, Fuel Cell Cars Later," Nurettin Demirdoven and John Deutch, MIT. Excerpt: "We compare the energy efficiency of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles as well as conventional internal combustion engines. Our analysis indicates that fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen from fossil fuels offer no significant energy efficiency advantage over hybrid vehicles operation in an urban drive cycle. We conclude that priority should be placed on hybrid vehicles by industry and government." See Science 13 August 2004. http://www.sciencemag.org
Current AFS Trinity contracts: NASA: NNG04CA00C; U.S.Navy: N00014-04-M-0271; U.S.DOT: 10-104 (Phase 1B), 12-104 (Phase 2A)
Some statements in this news release are forward-looking. These statements may be identified by the use of words such as "will," "expects," "believes," "targets," "intends," and words of similar import. Actual results may vary depending on circumstances both within and outside the control of the Company including market acceptance of products, technology development cycles and other risk factors. AFS Trinity Power Corporation takes no responsibility for updating any forward-looking statements made in this release. AFS Trinity Power's Extreme Hybrid(TM) is based on a Flywheel Plug-in Hybrid Drive Train design that is composed of five primary subsystems: (1) energy storage in the form of advanced lithium batteries that are recharged at night with off-peak power from the power grid; (2) power storage in an advanced flywheel; (3) advanced power-conversion and electronics; (4) a high efficiency steady-state engine; and (5) an electric power train. AFS Trinity expects that a plug-in hybrid sedan incorporating the drive train will achieve fuel efficiency of 250 mpg and that a moderate size SUV utilizing the drive train will be capable of 200 mpg. The driver will be able to operate the vehicle in electric-only mode for 40 miles, and at any time may flip a switch to run the vehicle as a conventional hybrid with a 500-mile range.
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